Saturday, May 7, 2011

To date not only has the President authorized the hit on Osama Bin Laden, but also provided for the killing of numerous other threats, including but not limited to: 3 Somali pirates; Baitullah Mehsud; Najmiddin Jalolov; Saleh al-Somali; Abdallah Sa’id, Hakimullah Mehsud; Kaddafi’s youngest son and three grandchildren; thousands via his large increase in drone attacks; and has ordered the assassination of the American terrorist Imam Anwar al-Awlaki.
Obama intensified the Bush administration’s effort in Afghanistan and Pakistan, increasing troop levels and number of stealth drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

That's pretty good for a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
The rest of May's article is pretty good, where she gets around to Obama butchering and slaughtering the U.S. economy.

Friday, May 6, 2011

The SEIU is the union outfit that gave Obama lots of help in the ObamaCare battle. Their president, Any Stern, has made more White House visits than any other non-government employee.

All pics below came from this site, and were chosen by a Mr. Zombie. (I don't know if his name is an intentional reference to what our Commander In Chief has done to our economy.)
Here's a sampling of Mr. Zombie's fine work:

A May Day rally in Los Angeles, co-sponsored by the SEIU and various communist groups, as well as other unions, reflected yet another step in the normalization of self-identified communist and socialist ideologies in the Obama era. Not only did the SEIU help to organize the rally in conjunction with communists, they marched side-by-side with communists, while union members carried communist flags, communists carried union signs, and altogether there was no real way to tell the two apart.

I'm currently reading a massive tome called "The Black Book Of Communism". The authors of this massive black doorstop attempt to outline all the deaths, destruction, and misery caused by that godawful doctrine. Their estimate is that the communists, those wanting to "spread the wealth around" (to quote our Commander In Chief once again) by means of force, killed more than 94 million people.

The Nazis were amateurs. To really do some damage, you need to display a concern for fairness and equality. At gunpoint, with gulags and re-education centers if necessary.

Here's a useful idiot with her red commie flag, and her worse-than-Nazi sentiments. God, I don't understand this mindset. Have these people never read a book ????

Here's the breakdown of the body count, according to The Black Book Of Communism:

65 million in the People's Republic of China20 million in the Soviet Union2 million in Cambodia2 million in North Korea1.7 million in Africa1.5 million in Afghanistan1 million in the Communist states of Eastern Europe1 million in Vietnam150,000 in Latin America10,000 deaths "resulting from actions of the international Communist movement and Communist parties not in power."

The Black Book is documented to the point of being ridiculous. Communism is the worst thing to ever happen to this planet, and I bet half the U.S. population couldn't tell you anything about the tragedy outlined above. That estimate probably includes this booger-eater.

And here they are, your government's employees, putting on their purple SEIU shirts and proudly carrying their red Chairman Mao flags.
I have friends in China whose parents were sent out to the countryside to be "re-educated" during the Cultural Revolution by these socialist assholes. Some of the parents didn't make it back.

Just out of curiosity, are the Marxists/Communists/Socialists supposed to be better than Nazis because their intentions were mistaken for "just" and "noble"? Is bending everyone to the will of the state supposed to be a good thing?

According to Zombie, the SEIU employees are the ones in purple. The Communist Party members are all in red. And "Obama is closely linked with the SEIU. The SEIU is closely linked with communists."

Is there any doubt in your mind why our economy is in the tank?

Once everybody started mingling, the colors helped identify the players.

Here's some video from the march. Enjoy the brief images of child murderer Che Guevara:

As a semi-recovering member, I can tell you: He’s a typical libertarian — great on the facts, snoozy/geeky/awkward on the delivery. If you loved the Atlas Shrugged movie, you’re totally digging him right now.

I Tivo'd the debate, and watched about 2/3rds of it this morning. A few observations:

1) Fox News hosted it, and set it up as a series of "gotcha" questions to each candidate, rather than bringing up an issue and letting all 5 participants address the same question. Therefore, the debate had the exciting feel and flow of channel surfing in a hotel with 5 TV stations.

2) Tim Pawlenty and Rick Santorum are two incredibly dull people. I actually found myself yearning for the 190 pounds of wind, shit and excitement known as Mitt Romney.

3) Herman Cain is a lot of fun. I'd work for that guy. (The businessman, not the potential president.)

5) Can we all, for the good of our Republic, pull together as a nation and RENT a new suit for Ron Paul?

This debate was a total waste of time. Fox News shouldn't be allowed to host a post-baptism family luncheon at East Fork County Line Baptist Church. If Pawlenty and Santorum are supposed to be the "establishment" candidates, the Republicans need a new establishment. Paul and Johnson, the two libertarians, could both use a speech coach. Herman Cain probably gained the most ground from this event.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

The Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) is pointing to Continental Tires' announcement on April 28 that they are building a new plant in the U.S. as an example of trade laws working.

In September, 2009 the Obama Administration imposed duties on surging imports of subsidized tires from China. The three-year plan was designed to provide relief for U.S. tire manufacturers under Section 421 of U.S. trade law, the first time the law had been used since its inception, the group noted.

Only one year after the import duties were applied, a study by AAM found that the U.S. tire industry had already reversed a significant decline. Sales were up, and workers were being hired.

I need to buy some new tires for the truck. Two would be nice, since the ones up front are about a month away from having steel belt poking through.
A sane person would go ahead and replace the back ones also. They would never pass an inspection.
Most normal humans would go ahead and purchase a new spare. Don't ask about the condition of my spare.

Most of my tire budget is going to Texas A and M University, in College Station, where my little Aggie is laboring to become a critter doctor. So I need a really good deal on tires.

China makes some good tires, and is willing to subsidize my purchase of their tires. China wants to get me the best possible deal on five tires !!!

China's government subsidizes Chinese manufacturing in a number of ways. As far as I can tell, they don't go so far as to cut checks to manufacturers, the way our silly government does for ethanol producers, farmers, or producers/researchers of ridiculous "green" products, but they help out with manipulating the RMB, import/export laws and quotas, and the like.

I think I should be allowed to purchase five Chinese tires at the lowest price possible. I want to call one of my friends in Xiamen, tell him what I'm looking for, and have him throw five of those bad boys on the next shipping container coming my way. I want to swap some pieces of paper with Benjamin Franklin's picture on them for five tires. The deal doesn't need to involve Barack Obama, George Bush, John Boehner, Goodyear, Firestone, the National Labor Relations Board, the Department of Commerce, or a gaggle of theologians asking "Where Would Jesus Shop?"

And those pics of Ben Franklin? There's only one place where they eventually come home to be spent. Trade deficits are based on totally bogus numbers. I run a huge trade deficit at the Starbuck's where I'm writing this, BTW.....

I also want to purchase a new suit. And if The Men's Wearhouse sells a suit for $800, but Joseph A. Bank has decided to take a loss on the same suit and sell thousands of them at a loss for $400, I'm going to buy the suit from Joseph A. Bank.

But what of the jobs lost at The Men's Wearhouse?

Most of us would say that The Men's Wearhouse needs to change its ways, or get ready to go out of business. Or we would purchase $400 suits from Joseph A Bank until Joseph A Bank went bankrupt. The health of either organization is a secondary consideration to getting a good deal on some clothing.

When I shop in Dallas, I don't worry about the impact of money not being spent in Fort Worth.
Ditto for when I shop in Mississippi. I don't want to pay an extra import tariff on things I bring across the Vicksburg bridge, just to keep it fair for East Fort Worth.
If I want to bring a bottle of tequila, a silly hat, three tasteless T-shirts and a box of Cuban cigars back from a vacation in Mexico, its nobody's business but mine.
The same thing goes for Chinese tires. They should cross borders at the same tax/duty rate as everything else produced anywhere else.

This would cause some discomfort for American politicians and bureaucrats who earn their living by selling exemptions and exceptions to the rules.
This would eventually bankrupt China. Or China would quickly learn not to imitate the U.S. - subsidizing pet political constituencies. Whichever came first.

I choose Kroger over Albertson's whenevr Kroger has the best deal on Campbell's soup and Michelob Ultra.

All this, despite Kroger NEVER EVER using my shipping and freight services. I have a massive trade deficit with Kroger, but I still shop with them. Am I a silly person, or what?

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

In October 2009, Boeing, long one of the best corporations in America, made an announcement that changed the economic outlook of South Carolina forever: The company's second line of 787 Dreamliners would be produced in North Charleston.

In choosing to manufacture in my state, Boeing was exercising its right as a free enterprise in a free nation to conduct business wherever it believed would best serve both the bottom line and the employees of its company. This is not a novel or complicated idea. It's called capitalism.

....South Carolina is a right-to-work state, and we're proud that within our borders workers cannot be required to join a labor union as a condition of employment. We don't need unions playing middlemen between our companies and our employees. We don't want them forcefully inserted into our promising business climate. And we will not stand for them intimidating South Carolinians.

That is apparently too much for President Obama and his union-beholden appointees at the National Labor Relations Board, who have asked the courts to intervene and force Boeing to stop production in South Carolina. The NLRB wants Boeing to produce the planes only in Washington state, where its workers must belong to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

Yeah. That really happened.

I go to about half a dozen bankruptcy auctions per year, usually to purchase manufacturing or warehouse equipment. The auctioneer usually sells off the heavy machinery first, and then sells off the office furniture and administrative equipment. Any time I spot union posters hanging in the employee breakroom, I loudly ask the other attendees why the company went bankrupt. The other bidders look at me like I'm some kind of idiot, and say, in near unison, "DON'T YOU SEE ALL THE UNION POSTERS???"I just like to see if it's as obvious to everyone else as it is to me.

With the economy still limping, and President Obama promising to create jobs, why on earth are his appointees killing jobs in South Carolina?

A common refrain among recession-weary Americans is that we don’t make anything in this country anymore. However, workers in South Carolina have a chance to make something — Boeing 787 Dreamliners that would be flown around the world — and yet Obama’s labor-cozy appointees to the National Labor Relations Board are intent on scuttling it.

Boeing, a vital U.S. company, wants to build a plant in South Carolina and bring good-paying manufacturing jobs to the state. They’ve already poured billions into the facilities and have hired 1,000 workers. But the NLRB filed a lawsuit last month to force Boeing back to Washington state, where workers would be represented by a union. The NLRB claims Boeing decided to open a non-union plant in South Carolina in retaliation for past strikes in Washington.

So what if it did?

The NLRB’s action is beyond unsettling. The lawsuit, in effect, is an effort to tell an American company how to operate its business and to intimidate its officers.

From the same Hot Air link, here's Georgia rep Lynn Westmoreland:

This is the first time in history the NLRB has argued that a company is violating federal law simply based on where they choose to locate a factory.

Now keep in mind, Boeing wasn’t moving jobs to South Carolina and they weren’t laying off employees in Washington. Rather, they opted to build and operate a new factory in South Carolina.

Did the cost of labor play a role in their decision to open this factory in South Carolina? Of course it did. Just as, I’m sure, state tax rates and property value also played a role in their decision.

These are not radical questions. Nor are they partisan straw-men being set up to score cheap political points against the current administration. These are legitimate questions which the Obama administration needs to answer as soon as they finish cleaning up the champagne bottles from the bin Laden celebration.

The NLRB is acting in a manner which not only seems entirely out of control and far beyond the boundaries of their charter, but in a way which depresses job growth. And wasn’t that supposed to be Job One for the White House?

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

As usual, Radley Balko has the best perspective on the events of the last couple of days:

In The Looming Tower, the Pulitzer-winning history of al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11, author Lawrence Wright lays out how Osama bin Laden’s motivation for the attacks that he planned in the 1990s, and then the September 11 attacks, was to draw the U.S. and the West into a prolonged war—an actual war in Afghanistan, and a broader global war with Islam.

Osama got both. And we gave him a prolonged war in Iraq to boot. By the end of Obama’s first term, we’ll probably top 6,000 dead U.S. troops in those two wars, along with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans. The cost for both wars is also now well over $1 trillion.

We have also fundamentally altered who we are. A partial, off-the-top-of-my-head list of how we’ve changed since September 11 . . .

We’ve sent terrorist suspects to “black sites” to be detained without trial and tortured.

We’ve turned terrorist suspects over to other regimes, knowing that they’d be tortured.

In those cases when our government later learned it got the wrong guy, federal officials not only refused to apologize or compensate him, they went to court to argue he should be barred from using our courts to seek justice, and that the details of his abduction, torture, and detainment should be kept secret.

We’ve abducted and imprisoned dozens, perhaps hundreds of men in Guantanamo who turned out to have been innocent. Again, the government felt no obligation to do right by them.

The government launched a multimillion dollar ad campaign implying that people who smoke marijuana are complicit in the murder of nearly 3,000 of their fellow citizens.

The government illegally spied and eavesdropped on thousands of American citizens.

Presidents from both of the two major political parties have claimed the power to detain suspected terrorists and hold them indefinitely without trial, based solely on the president’s designation of them as an “enemy combatant,” essentially making the president prosecutor, judge, and jury. (I’d also argue that the treatment of someone like Bradley Manning wouldn’t have been tolerated before September 11.)

The current president has also claimed the power to execute U.S. citizens, off the battlefield, without a trial, and to prevent anyone from knowing about it after the fact.

The Congress approved, the president signed, and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a broadly written law making it a crime to advocate for any organization the government deems sympathetic to terrorism. This includes challenging the “terrorist” designation in the first place.

Flying in America now means enduring a humiliating and hassling ritual that does little if anything to actually make flying any safer. Every time the government fails to catch an attempt at terrorism, it punishes the public for its failure by adding to the ritual.

American Muslims, a heartening story of success and assimilation, are now harassed and denigrated for merely trying to build houses of worship.

Without a warrant, the government can search and seize indefinitely the laptops and other personal electronic devices of anyone entering the country.

The Department of Homeland Security now gives terrorism-fighting grants for local police departments across the country to purchase military equipment, such as armored personnel carriers, which is then used against U.S. citizens, mostly to serve drug warrants.

Hit the link at the top to read the rest of the piece. It's excellent.

I'll never forget going to my uncle's house in the early 1970's and hearing a farmer question whether or not our space travel was causing an uptick in hurricanes.

Well, guess why we had tornadoes in the South last week?

Bad legislative karma. Yep. Certain regions have legislators that don't bow at the foot of Saint Albert, The Goracle of Music City, Tennessee. The Gods sent the tornadoes to those exact places as payback.

“Given that global warming is unequivocal,” climate scientist Kevin Trenberth cautioned the American Meteorological Society in January of this year, “the null hypothesis should be that all weather events are affected by global warming rather than the inane statements along the lines of ‘of course we cannot attribute any particular weather event to global warming.’”The congressional delegations of these states — Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky — overwhelmingly voted to reject the science that polluting the climate is dangerous. They are deliberately ignoring the warnings from scientists.

So there you have it. If the congressional delegations of 'Bama, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Georgia, Virginny, and Ol' Kentuck had just voted to let Al Gore buy Carbon Credits from himself, if we had just started using CFL bulbs a little sooner, if we had just built a few more idiotic windmills in West Texas, if we had implemented an economy-destroying carbon tax, if we had carpooled, starved a few more brown people by using grain as ethanol, used a push mower, minimized packaging, put on a sweater, bought a bracelet, air dried our clothes, and done other things to conform to some bureaucrat's Luddite fantasy.....

If we had turned our lives over to the government, crucified the evil Koch brothers, voted Democrat, and listened to the warnings from totally disinterested scientists whose research funding and prestige doesn't depend on government funding at all....

Then the earth-goddess Gaia would have been pleased. Alabama would have been spared. The tornadoes would have hit Canada, where the natives are well known for violating the Christian Sabbath. And consuming alcohol. And wearing clothing made of blended fabrics. And not wearing Burkhas.